Monday, August 12, 2013

New 47-Story Luxury Beachfront Skyscraper Built..Except They Forgot One Thing...

Now, what could be nicer than having your own luxury apartment with ocean views within walking distance of the beach on Spain's ritzy Costa Blanca? The InTempo building pictured above looks perfect, doesn't it? Couldn't you just imagine it for a couple of weeks as a rental, or a nice little vacation spot?

Not only that, but you're going to get plenty of exercise, so bring comfortable shoes. Because the building was somehow constructed without a single elevator shaft!

Verdad, amigos. But wait it gets better.

The project was originally was initially funded by the bank Caixa Galicia to the tune of $122.8 million in 2005, but as of December 2012, financing was taken over by Sareb after Caixa Galicia bailed out, lending the builder an additional $14.7 million.

Believe it or not, both the builder, Olga Urbana, and the original lender Caixa Galicia should have received a wake up call when they found out (after about 23 floors had been completed) that there was no service elevator installed for the 41 workers who had been hauling materials up 23 flights of stairs. Instead, Caixa Galicia bailed out, and Olga Urbana somehow forgot to mention this little detail to Sareb - who also apparently never visited the building site before forking over all that money.

To make it even more of a fiasco, because of the way the building was designed there isn't any place for elevator shafts, which leads me to wonder what the architects were smoking when they designed it. Since InTempo is 94% completed, the only solution is to tear down some of what's been completed and make provisions for external elevators, like the ones at the Bonaventure in Los Angeles. At a significant cost increase, of course...which also includes $3.3 million owed to suppliers that hasn't been paid yet as well a few pending court cases claiming fraud.

Meanwhile 35% of the luxury apartments were already sold to people whom had no idea an elevator wasn't included. Just imagine if somebody bought the penthouse!

Provided some of these insignificant details can be ironed out, the building is currently scheduled to be finished in December.